Ideas for cannon ball extraction?

[ruffdog]

Get a gallon of the stuff the doctor makes you drink before a colonoscopy.....

 

[CH4Ohio]

Or the "firm whack" thread . . .

I'd strap the cannon and carriage complete assembly to that dolly you have with 2" ratchet straps. Then pick up the whole package and hang it upside down. Everytime you walk past it give it a shot of PB Blaster in the ignition hole. It'll come out.

 

[oosik]

Finally - with the last half dozen or so posts - we are now giving good advice.

 

[airbiscuit]

I have a feeling it will be a while before the OP posts any pics of the Breech, hones the bore to a shine, or tries any of the half dozen or so suggestions that would have worked by now.

 

[TheMan419]

Cut in half and jb weld back together. what could go wrong?

 

[Richard]

Beginning to think the ball is deformed. It has what clearly appears to be a flat spot on it.

Helped the wife with several of her projects today, at the end of day, decided I wanted to tinker and I'm about over trying to save this darn ball. What do I have....begin looking around.

I bought a bit and some toggle bolts the other day, then I found a bit I had that was roughly 5/8 but more important, maybe 12/15" long... started looking for my extension, and when I found it, noticed it had a wood boring bit.

So, I've got a wood boring bit (the kind that pulls itself into the wood) Milwaukee 1/2" right angle drill and an extension that just happens to let all this work.

Hmmm...can the pointed bit 'catch' the ball? YEP! Can it drill into it and can the auger part drill into it? YEP!! Now I'm getting excited.

The ball at one point, rotated WITH the bit. So the ball was rotating in the bore. I'm feeling this is good as it's not bound. So I start pulling the bit out. I get shavings crawling up the extension then bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and nothing, no force against the torque... it's like the bit snapped?

Nope.

Turns out the bolt that holds the chuck on, snapped so the drill was moving but the chuck wasn't.

The ball is still stuck in the bore BUT it's much closer to the exit. It's gotta be close enough that once I get this chuck fixed, I'll probably be able to finish the hole and then I'm thinking take a sawzall to weaken it up and possibly cut it into quarters or maybe half.

We'll see but tomorrow, I have to order the bolt to fix this (happens to be a left handed thread to boot)

@airbiscuit , if a breech is an opening BEHIND the ball, I think this would be called a muzzle loader (??) There's one (big) hole in/out where you load things, and a small ignition hole in the back. There are pictures on the first thread that might illustrate all this.

 

[airbiscuit]

Okay,

I still don't see a picture of the ignition hole. Are you opposed to using any sort of lubrication to help it slide easier?

 

[grsthegreat]

Someone may have already suggested this but how about injecting expanding insulation foam behind the ball?

Good luck getting that stuff out…….its miserable.

 

[4570Man]

Good luck getting that stuff out…….its miserable.

Yea, that’s a terrible idea. That stuff is horrible to clean up and it wouldn’t work anyway. It doesn’t make a lot of psi expanding.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I believe Barney Fife got one out once.

Cool cannon.